It's time the University of Houston broaden its ambitions and engage the neighborhood.

University of Houston president and chancellor Renu Khator speaks during a press conference.

When University of Houston System Chancellor and UH President Renu Khator delivers her fall address this morning, she will offer an impressive list of accomplishments during the past year that solidify the university's drive toward a Tier One ranking and set the stage for even more ambitious aims.

Under Khator's six years of leadership, the university has become a true residential campus with more than 8,000 dormitory and apartment beds on campus, second only to Texas A&M; the number of STEM graduates has increased dramatically; its freshman retention rate is improving; and its technology transfer program is becoming one of the more active in the nation.

Those accomplishments and others truly deserve touting, and UH is fortunate to have at its helm one of the most dynamic academic administrators in the nation. But with the university on a firm footing, its future Cougar Red with promise, we would urge Khator and her cohorts to broaden the university's ambitions.

We suggest that she look beyond the bounds of the campus and begin to engage the greater Third Ward community that's home to both UH and Texas Southern University. The Third Ward's anchor institution has much to offer as the adjoining neighborhoods seek to solve some of the most intractable problems in the city: substandard housing, crime, drug abuse, education needs, the challenges of gentrification, to name only a few. We also believe that a closer relationship with its neighbors would redound to the university's benefit.

The UH campus is a green and leafy oasis, a lively city within a city that abuts a disinvested neighborhood of substandard houses, trash-strewn vacant lots, skulking stray animals and derelict businesses. The contrast between the campus and the neighborhoods is dramatic and disturbingly obvious.

It goes without saying that the Third Ward is home to many, many hardworking Houstonians. The neighborhood also boasts cultural offerings, thriving businesses and a cadre of community activists who have worked for years to revive the area. Despite those assets, one of the poorest sections of Houston needs redevelopment and revitalization. UH must play a key role.

Across the nation in recent years academic institutions have worked to reconnect the urban campus with surrounding neighborhoods. The University of Chicago - one of many examples - is in the midst of a $250 million redevelopment effort aimed at revitalizing a blighted retail district near its historic Hyde Park campus.

"It's enlightened self-interest for us," an executive vice president at the University of Chicago told the New York Times last year. And thus it would be for UH.

A university in the midst of safe, attractive and vibrant neighborhoods is an easier sell for prospective students and their parents. A university that reaches out to its neighbors allays suspicion about its motives and nurtures easier working relationships.

We are well aware that UH and residents of the greater Third Ward, neighbors for seven decades, have worked and collaborated on a variety of fronts over the years. Too often, though, the university's resolve has flagged and the follow-through has been inconsistent.

We would urge sustained attention from the highest levels of the university administration - attention growing out of an awareness that the future of the university and the future of its neighbors are inextricably bound together.